There was a city hall meeting, and Nancy Carroll, the parks and recreation director at the time, said anyone willing to help build the course at the old country club should meet on Saturday morning.

Marty got there in the morning, chainsaw in hand, and went to work.

“I started cutting down trees until about 3 o’clock when my chain came off, and I said, ‘well I better quit,’ and everybody else had quit, and nobody showed up after that,” Marty said with a laugh. “One guy came back once and helped me build a bridge, but I basically built that on my own. I had some help from Kiwanis pouring concrete, too.”

Marty said he started volunteering for Reiman Gardens about 12 years ago.

He said when he’s given a project, he finds it fairly easy to try and come up with a solution.

A few years ago, he said they wanted to build objects similar to treehouses all across Reiman Gardens, but they couldn’t build them in the trees because they didn’t want to damage them.

“So, I built a pumpkin, which was about 12 feet high and 12 feet wide. It had a tower at the center so you could climb up the ladder and look out over the gardens,” Marty said. “People said, ‘well, where’d you get the plans for that?’ And I said, ‘oh, it’s just in my head.’”

“Last year in Reiman Gardens, I put in about 600 hours for the year,” he said. “I often say I don’t know if I have more fun working or playing.”

Marty found out on Wednesday he was chosen for the Iowa Volunteer Hall of Fame.

“Then I got the letter, you know, from the governor of the state of Iowa, signed by Kim Reynolds,” Marty said with a laugh.

He said he talked to his daughter in Colorado, and his daughter in Florida, and they will both be coming up for the ceremony in Des Moines.

He said he was “quite amazed and dumbfounded,” but also very excited when he found out about this award, and volunteering is something that continues to bring him joy.